International Call Forwarding Strategies for Increasing Productivity and Strengthening B2B Connections

Strong international business to business connections are key in maintaining optimal productivity and implementing growth. Call forwarding has proven crucial  to successful international communications management, but the technology alone can only go so far. So let’s take a look at some call forwarding application strategies that have proven successful in keeping international business relations smooth, effective and influential.

Overcoming Time Zone Restrictions

Time zone differences can be one of the most difficult hurdles for international business relationships to overcome. Many businesses approach time zone issues by keeping communications entirely non-verbal, conducting information exchange through email and instant messaging services that allow each party to commune at leisure. Unfortunately, this method is neither time efficient nor effective, often resulting in miscommunications easily avoided through verbal exchange.

Apply call forwarding to resolve this problem by utilizing business to mobile forwarding outside of normal office hours. In this manner, business associates can receive important international communications at any time. For less important international communications--minor inquiries, clarifications, appointment set-ups, etc., simply arrange forwarding to a virtual call center after hours, where briefed service representatives can keep communications up and running without inconveniencing either business associates or international callers.

Face-to-Face Communications

For most small to mid-size businesses, frequent international travel is neither practical nor affordable, yet the importance of face to face business communications in the development of team cohesiveness, information interpretation and conflict resolution cannot be overlooked. To incorporate face to face communications into your international business relationship, forward international calls to video and VoIP capable devices. Tablets, smartphones, laptops and even some e-readers can serve as VoIP terminals, enabling cost-free,  face-to-face conferencing across the globe

Communications Review

Mistranslation can be disastrous in international communications, so if you are communicating with international business associates in a non-arterial language, utilize virtual call center call logging capabilities to record all incoming and outgoing international calls. By reviewing calls with a translator after communications terminate, linguistic mistakes and cultural faux pas can be identified and corrected, preventing repetitive translation errors.

Optimize Communications Scalability

Businesses engaged in global growth must be equipped with a scalable phone system that can handle heavy call traffic. Most traditional systems have line limits that restrict optimal customer service and call routing.

To overcome this problem, many businesses operating on a global scale choose to utilize the free Hosted PBX services that come with any good call forwarding service. Hosted PBX systems have no line limit, so additional virtual lines can be added for the exclusive usage of new international associates, enabling priority calls to be treated as such.

Fax to Email

Fax to email is a handy forwarding service feature that enables automated fax transmission to email forwarding. Faxes can be viewed as a .pdf or .tiff file on any smartphone, pc or tablet. By forwarding faxes to email, transmitted visual data can be optimally forwarded to all necessary recipients, a particularly useful tool for offices that primarily operate non-traditionally or virtual.